


The Curious Case of Sentient Green Goo

by firecracker189



Series: Our Little Family [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Except Natasha, Gen, Green aliens, Non-Sexual Age Play, Tony is a badass, bucky and steve carry around heavy things like they don't weigh anything, clint is kinda based off of avengers assemble clint in this one instead of mcu clint, everyone is very resourceful in their weapon choice, nsap, she is subtle and uses grenades, the avengers fighting aliens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 10:16:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13432590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecracker189/pseuds/firecracker189
Summary: Green Goo Things? Par for the course for The Avengers.OR: The Avengers battle green gooey aliens, and things go awry.





	The Curious Case of Sentient Green Goo

**Author's Note:**

> This came to me after reading a comment from an anon that they'd left on "Easing The Ache". So enjoy, anon!  
> It's set in the "Our Little Family" universe, but doesn't really follow any order on the timeline like the first two works do!  
> This was so much fun to write, I hope you have as much fun reading it!

“ _Fuck!_ ”

Clint went flying through the air, Hulk catching him in the nick of time and depositing him safely on the roof of the office complex.

“Thanks, buddy.”

“Be more careful.” Was Hulk’s understanding reply as he launched himself away with another angry roar.

“Be more careful, sure buddy, that’s great advice,” Clint muttered to himself, rubbing at his shoulder. He nocked another arrow and grinned. “Hello, mister alien life form, meet exploding arrow!”

“He really shouldn’t sound so gleeful about that.” Steve commented, as another of the… things… exploded into green goop, Clint whooping from his perch.

“Yeah, well,” Natasha grunted, grapping with another of the things as it came at her. “What did you expect, it’s Clint.”

Steve raised a bench over his head, swinging it around a few times to gain momentum before launching it at a group of several as they advanced on him. “You’re right, I can’t have too high standards when it comes to Clint.” He spoke into his comm as he looked around.

“Stop talking about me.” Clint sounded irritated as he let loose several arrows at once, a lovely symphony of explosion, sonic blast, and electric impulse sounding all at once.

Steve clapped his hands over his ears. “Gah, watch it! Super hearing over here! Not all of us can turn off our hearing aids when something’s going to be nine levels of loud!”

“Sorry.” Clint didn’t sound sorry at all.

Tony swooped overhead and Steve pivoted just in time to see him launch Bucky at a several foot tall green thing. “Heads up, I think they’re ingesting some kind of inorganic matter!” Tony shouted as he turned away from where he’d dropped Bucky. “It seems to make them larger the more they ingest!”

Bucky let loose a string of curse words that would have made a sailor faint, struggling with the alien. “News flash, I don’t think they’re very easily killed without blowing them up or launching projectiles.” He yelped, eyes going wide. The thing was _eating him._ Well, more accurately… absorbing him? Going around him like a pile of green jelly with fangs and claws? Either way, Bucky wasn’t pleased with the current turn of events. He cast his eyes around frantically. Clint was occupied, so was Tony. “Natalia!” he screamed, catching sight of her red locks on top of a car as she unloaded a few grenades into a pack of green blobs. He frowned a little. That was _his_ grenade launcher. “Natalia, over here!” Bucky grunted and tried to free himself to no avail—whatever these things were made out of, it wasn’t quite as easy to break free from as it had been earlier. “Natalia, shoot!”

Natasha pivoted, hearing James’s distress. “I can’t shoot it without shooting you!” she yelled back from her position on top of a crashed SUV.

“Do it anyway!” Bucky roared back. The thing had trapped him up to his shoulders now, and he was running out of options. Even his metal arm wasn’t working. “Either shoot it or throw something at it, but either way I’m taking damage this round!”

Natalia’s face went stony, grim, and he caught the briefest glimpse of emotional shut down as she leveled the launcher at him. Bucky felt the thing ooze another inch or so upwards. “Now!” he shouted, and watched as she pulled the trigger.

Tony swooped down, landing beside Clint, and lifted his face-plate so they could talk.

“How is it?” Clint asked, breathless.

“Not looking good. Police blockades don’t work against these things, they just change form and squeeze through the gaps. I don’t know what they are or where they’re from, but I know SHIELD will have a field day analyzing them.” Hulk’s roaring rebounded against the buildings, echoing in their ears.

Clint gave a little chuckle. “At least Hulk can stomp on them. That seems to work.”

“This is true.” Tony’s gaze turned calculating as he studied Clint, gripping his bicep and turning him so he could check stock of Clint’s arrows. “How are we feeling about air travel?”

“Air strike?” Clint asked, brightening. “Bring it on.”

Tony’s fingers situated themselves around the straps of Clint’s quiver. “Go ahead and nock a few arrows,” he decided, watching as Clint loaded four arrows at once into the bow. “Right. Hold tight, and put your tray tables in an upright position.” There was a clunk as the face-plate reattached itself, and then they were off, like a pair of kamikaze pigeons.

The explosion sounded somewhat muffled this time as Steve struggled with two of the things, staving them off with a street lamp he’d broken off it’s pedestal. “Get. The fuck. Away from me.” He growled, turning as he heard Natasha cry out Bucky’s name. Adrenaline spiked, metal flashing as Steve twirled the broken pole around like a baseball bat, sending the two aliens flying with a nasty splat. “Bucky?” he yelled into his earpiece, ignoring Clint and Tony’s snickered reminders to watch his language. Steve dropped the pole with a clunk and took off, following the earlier sound of Natasha’s voice around several corners until he finally found her. She was standing in a pile of goo, straining to liberate Bucky from the fractured green mass. “What happened?” Steve’s voice was steely.

“I had to shoot it,” She grunted as she sidestepped several feet of flaming alien goop. “It was… ingesting him, and he asked me to shoot it.”

“With what?” Steve sounded irritated as he noticed the bruising, scrapes, and burns that covered Bucky’s face and hands.

“Grenade launcher.” She admitted as she lay him out. Explosions sounded from a few blocks over, and Clint’s triumphant tones could be heard over the earpieces, congratulating himself on a job well done.

Steve’s look would have felled a lesser woman than Natasha as he crouched and ran his fingers along Bucky’s skull to check for damage. “Buck.” His voice was firm, the way it had been back during the war. “Wake up. C’mon. No lyin’ down on the job.” Bucky didn’t budge. Steve hauled back and slapped him across the cheek. “Wake up!” Steve’s stomach churned with a not-very-grown-up feeling as he looked down at Bucky’s motionless form. He pushed it aside and continued assessing the situation. “Buck!” he barked once more, slapping him again. Bucky’s head lolled to the side, thready moan leaving his lips.

“Steve, I swear to every god ever known, if you hit me one more time, I’ll kick your ass.”

Relief swept through Steve, and he let out a laugh. “Alright, Buck. But I did have to wake you up. You went and let Natasha launch a grenade at you.”

Bucky sat himself up. “I’m fine. Though it looks like Agent Hill and Phil could use our help, though.” He pointed stiffly down the street, where Phil was backed into a corner with Maria, a few junior agents quaking in their boots as they stood to the side. A line of green advanced on them, some of the life forms growing by the second.

“What the hell are they feeding off of?” Steve asked, yanking Bucky to his feet as Natasha led the way down the street.

“Not sure yet, JARVIS is analyzing.” Tony piped up through the comms. “I’ve got Clint, but he’s low on arrows. We’re making a final loop around and then we’re heading back that way.”

Natasha launched herself off a mailbox and went sailing into the air, executing a perfect back-flip and landing in front of the terrified agents. “Boys,” she commented breathlessly, leveling the grenade launcher at the aliens.

Bucky shared a look with Steve, and Steve shrugged, grabbing a hold of his shield.

Bucky got a firm grip on Steve’s suit, Steve curling his upper half behind his shield. “Ready?”

“Go.” Steve’s voice was muffled by the vibranium.

Bucky launched Steve airborne, watching as he sailed through the air and hit the wall of goo, dissipating the smaller aliens in a green explosion. Steve hit the ground with a grunt just in time to pivot upwards and see Bucky charging into the fray, holding half a telephone pole in his hands.

“You always were better at baseball than me,” Steve quipped as Bucky swung the wooden pole smoothly through the air, causing the largest alien to lose a few feet off its height.

Phil barked orders in the background, and the awed junior agents took off as soon as they had a window, scurrying back behind the safe zone.

“Anyone hurt?” Hill hollered over the din.

“Not so far!” Steve grunted back, eyes widening as a three foot pile of goop propelled itself forward, fangs bared as it went for his leg. “Hey, no!” he smashed it with his shield.

Bucky kept grappling with the big one as Natasha strategically picked off smaller advancing units with her grenades.

“Need a hand?” Several shock arrows rained down and melted all but the largest one, Clint dropping gracefully into their midst from several feet above. “Assistant Director.” He gave Maria a cocky nod.

“Agent Barton.” She replied, shaking her head fondly.

“Tony, what’s the status on whatever makes them grow?” Phil tapped at his earpiece.

“JARVIS thinks it’s coming from the sewers.”

“Methane?” Maria asked, wrinkling her nose.

“Most probably,” Tony replied, leveling his gauntlets at the large green mass before them. “Right, kids. Leave this one to daddy. Everybody move, let’s go! You too, Barnes.”

They didn’t have to be told twice. The little unit moved out at a hectic pace, scrambling to hide themselves behind a fallen dumpster a block down.

“It’s gonna get messy,” Tony’s voice reminded over the comm units. “Get ready for some green rain.” He sounded nearly as gleeful as Clint as the repulsor beams in his gauntlets charged up. “In three, two…” the alien shrieked in anger just as Iron Man released the full brunt of his power. Behind the dumpster, everyone ducked their heads, shuddering as warm goop showered down a moment later, sliding down exposed necklines and clinging to long hair.

“Ugh,” Clint groaned.

“Ew.” Steve agreed as he straightened up, covered from cowl to belt in goop.

Natasha unfurled herself with a squishing sound, face a mask of endless disdain. “It is down my bra.” She commented, sounding none too happy. Her white shirt was now very form fitting and a violent shade of green, one of Clint’s jackets absolutely foul smelling with alien guts as it hung off of her.

Bucky experimentally moved his left arm. “Yep. There’s gunk in between the plates of my arm.” He raised his head as a gunk covered Tony came hovering over. “Think you can irrigate my arm later? I don’t wanna know what poop gas robot goo can do to my circuits.”

Maria popped up from where Phil had wrapped himself around her protectively and pinched her nose. “Gah, methane is right. This stuff _smells._ ”

Phil’s back was covered in the stuff, though his front had fared completely clean. He grimaced. “Right.” He spoke cautiously. “Tony, I want you scanning for threats anywhere else that we may have missed. Clint, I want you to go find Hulk and bring him back here. Steve, watch Bucky’s six. His arm might be compromised with all that goo and he’ll need a wing-man.”

Silence reigned as JARVIS scanned the area, Clint heading off down the pavement, calling for Hulk.

“Looks like there’s a few civilians pinned down three blocks south of here. I’m seeing two very large unfriendlies on the scanners.” Tony spoke up, and everyone cursed.

“Hill, go back to base and inform them we’re nearly done here and are going to need a clean up team. Everyone else, do your best with what we’ve got.” Phil looked around for a weapon, at a loss. “Natasha, what’s the status of your grenades?”

Natasha checked the chamber. “I have one left. Tony, how is the power in your gauntlets?”

“Thirty percent.” He spoke up, sounding grim.

Steve put his shield back on his back and groaned. “Great. So we don’t have enough fire power, then.”

“Not necessarily.” Tony sounded full of mischief. “Gimme a minute.” He flew off, leaving Hill to clamber over debris and wind her way around goop-puddles as she headed for the mobile command unit.

“What’s he up to?” Bucky wondered, hurrying to help Clint with Bruce as he came back into view.

“Don’t know,” Steve replied, looking around for something they could use to cover Bruce up. Ultimately, he ended up with a table-cloth from the busted up Italian restaurant a few doors down from their hiding spot. He helped Clint drape it around a very exhausted and disoriented Bruce.

The silence was bordering on awkward as everyone shifted uncomfortably, goo in places green alien goo should never be as they waited for Tony to come back and explain what was going on.

“So,” Clint spoke up. “Think that Italian place still has anything edible?”

Natasha scowled at him and he shrugged. “I’m hungry,” he defended, craning his neck as Tony came flying back.

“Alright, listen up. I’ve mapped out the sewer systems surrounding the aliens. Between my fire power and Natasha’s grenade, we should be able to ignite the methane from the sewers and blow them up.” He raised a finger. “However, since they feed off methane, there’s no telling whether that will kill them when their supply goes away, or make them stronger.”

“What about the civilians?” Bucky asked, frowning.

“That’s Cap’s specialty: saving civilians.” Tony answered, and raised his hands. “Right, everybody knows their part in this play, now let’s move!” He pivoted in mid-air and flew back towards the spot, Natasha hurrying after him, grenade launcher balanced on her shoulder.

Bucky and Steve hauled Bruce between them and started off towards the sounds of screaming, Phil and Clint on their heels. Once they’d gotten a block away, Bucky and Steve deposited Bruce inside an abandoned department store and hurried back into the streets.

Steve stuck to Bucky closely, the two of them making quick work of evacuating the ten or so people that were left in the danger zone while Tony and Natasha worked with Phil to distract the two remaining aliens.

In no time at all it was time for Tony’s plan to be instituted. Natasha set herself up to get the proper angle and Tony adjusted his course in kind. Phil, Bucky, and Steve scrambled to shelter behind a car together as Tony called the shots from his position above them.

“Right, get ready. On my mark. Three, two—“ _Boom._

The explosion knocked Natasha from her perch, Tony spiraling head over heels for several feet before JARVIS righted him again. The car Phil had dragged Bucky and Steve behind skidded several feet before finally giving up and rolling on top of them. Disoriented, Bucky and Steve simply lay there for a few beats.

Green goop rained for several long moments as the last of the aliens disappeared, leaving behind several blocks worth of damage, and foul smelling goo wherever they’d been.

Bucky grunted as the disorientation began to wear off. “Steve. We gotta move this.”

Steve wriggled from where he’d been pinned against the concrete. “Yeah. My arms are pinned. How are yours?”

Bucky wiggled experimentally. “Think it actually knocked me a few feet into the sidewalk,” he said incredulously. “I can’t move.”

A groan came from off to the side.

“Shit!” Steve muttered. “Phil!”

“Phil, can you hear me?” Bucky asked, struggling. “Tony! Tony we can’t move, we’re stuck under this damn suburban. A little help would be nice!”

Tony immediately sprang to action, using his last precious power reserve to push the car off his friends.

Steve sat up slowly, hand to his bleeding ear. The blast must have perforated his eardrum.

Bucky followed suit, scrambling to his feet and moving over towards Phil’s prone form. He carefully rolled the man onto his side, fingers light as they skittered over him and checked for injury. “Tony, get those paramedics over here.” Bucky’s voice was tense.

Clint helped Natasha to her feet, the two of them hovering nervously as they watched Bucky triage. Something bubbled in Clint’s stomach that was decidedly un-Hawkeye like. He clutched Natasha’s hand tighter.

A few tense minutes passed before the paramedics returned, following Tony through the safe paths in the goo as they lay down the stretcher beside Phil.

“What do we got?” one of them asked Bucky.

“No damage to the skull that I can tell, but his breathing is labored and he’s definitely fractured his femur on the left side. Possible fractures in the right arm as well, wrist and just above.”

The paramedics nodded and carefully transferred Phil to the stretcher. “We’ll take good care of him.” They assured as they made their slow progress back to the ambulance, eyes of all the team watching as they left.

“Someone should go get Bruce,” Bucky spoke up. “We should go get cleaned up and then we can meet them at the hospital.”

Happy met them at the tower. Once they were all cleaned up and in less disgusting smelling clothes, they piled into one of Tony’s SUV’s. The drive to the hospital was agonizingly quiet, and Bucky could tell that everyone was between headspaces. It had definitely been scary, seeing Phil laid out like that. Seeing their normally strong and fearless leader brought down to the lowest rung.

They were still quiet as they traipsed up the stairway and into Phil’s room, clustering around his bed, as Natasha ushered a half-asleep Bruce into the only chair.

Steve slipped his hand into Bucky’s, and Bucky squeezed it tight as the sound of Phil’s heart monitor beeped through the room. Tony edged up to Bruce and laid a nervous hand on his shoulder. Natasha wrapped an arm around Clint, who was the first one to speak.

“W-will he be okay, mama?” It was so small and defeated sounding that Bucky had to order himself not to cry then and there.

“He will be fine.” Natasha assured, voice warm. Bucky saw through to her worry, though. “When in all of the time you and I have known him has he not come through?”

“We should wait.” Tony spoke suddenly. “Wait here till he wakes up. Waking up alone after surgery sucks.”

And that was that. They all sat down on the floor or in the window ledge and just… waited. The longer they waited the more Clint and Steve slipped, Clint curling against Natasha and Steve sitting in Bucky’s lap. Bruce dozed lightly, Tony sitting in the floor at his feet, head lolling against Bruce’s knee as he drifted off. Bucky simply wrapped himself around Stevie and rocked from side to side, waiting vigilantly.

“Did we get them?”

The exhausted comment startled everyone into a frenzy, Clint scampering across the room to hug Phil. Phil raised a shaky hand to his hair and petted it softly.

“We thought you were dead, papa!” Clint said, voice tremulous.

“Would I ever let a pile of green goo kill me?” Phil’s voice was teasing as he turned to kiss the side of Clint’s head.

“I told him you would not,” Natasha teased as she sat delicately on the side of the bed. Phil squeezed her knee with his free hand. “You are too indispensible for that.”

Tony approached the bed, and Phil reached out for him with a smile. Tony hid his face in Phil’s hospital gown as he held on to him tightly. Natasha gently pried Clint away as the sound of soft sobs filtered through the room. “Hey,” Phil murmured softly, rubbing Tony’s back. “What’s all this for?”

“I…” Tony stuttered. “I… didn’t want you to go without sayin’ I loved you.”

Phil squeezed his boy tight. “I know you do, Tony. I know you do.”

Bruce looked on, relief written all over his face now that Tony had finally made peace with his feelings.

This went on for several minutes of distraught Tony before he finally remembered there was an audience for his outburst, hiding further into Phil’s good side in embarrassment. “Hey,” Phil crooned softly. “Tony, nobody here is going to fault you for being emotional. If I’m correct in reading the room, everyone was upset by today’s events. And it’s okay to cry every once in a while. It doesn’t mean you’re weak, or somehow less of a member of this family. In fact it takes a very strong person to admit their feelings.”

And that was that. The others began to chatter lightly again, Tony staying curled up against Phil and letting the voices filter through as background noise. He finally fell asleep around a half hour after that, when the nurse came through to make sure everyone else left for the night.

Phil may or may not have threatened her bodily harm if she tried to move Tony.


End file.
